356 AS UNIVERSITY PEESIDENT-V 



those of Theodore Dwight on the Constitution of the 

 United States and of Bayard Taylor upon German litera 

 ture awakened a large number of active minds to the 

 beauties of these fields. The coming of Goldwin Smith 

 was an especial help to us. He remained longer than the 

 others ; in fact, he became for two or three years a resident 

 professor, exercising, both in his lecture-room and out of 

 it, a great influence upon the whole life of the university. 

 At a later period, the coming of George W. Greene as 

 lecturer on American history, of Edward A. Freeman, 

 regius professor at Oxford, as a lecturer on European 

 history, and of James Anthony Froude in the same field, 

 aroused new interest. Some of our experiences with the 

 two gentlemen last named were curious. Freeman was a 

 rough diamond in his fits of gout very rough indeed. At 

 some of his lectures he appeared clad in a shooting- jacket 

 and spoke sitting, his foot swathed to mitigate his suffer 

 ings. From New Haven came a characteristic story of 

 him. He had been invited to attend an evening gathering, 

 after one of his lectures, at the house of one of the profes 

 sors, perhaps the finest residence in the town. With 

 the exception of himself, the gentlemen all arrived in 

 evening dress; he appeared in a shoo ting- jacket. Pres 

 ently two professors arrived; and one of them, glancing 

 through the rooms, and seeing Freeman thus attired, asked 

 the other, What sort of a costume do you call that 1 The 

 answer came instantly, &quot;I don t know, unless it is the 

 costume of a Saxon swineherd before the Conquest. &quot; In 

 view of Freeman s studies on the Saxon and Norman 

 periods and the famous toast of the dean of Wells, &quot;In 

 honor of Professor Freeman, who has done so much to 

 reveal to us the rude manners of our ancestors, the Yale 

 professor s answer seemed much to the point. 



The lectures of Froude were exceedingly interesting; 

 but every day he began them with the words l Ladies and 

 gentlemen,&quot; in the most comical falsetto imaginable, 

 a sort of Lord Dundreary manner, so that, sitting 

 beside him, I always noticed a ripple of laughter run- 



